[9:49] I'm going to call to order the conquered city council meeting of Monday, April

[9:53] 14th, 2025. Would you all please rise and join

[9:58] me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag?

[10:02] I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

[10:08] for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

[10:13] justice for all.

[10:18] Madame clerk, would you please call the role? Councelor Brown, here. Mayor

[10:23] Champlin, present. Councelor Fennessy, present. Councelor, present. Councelor

[10:28] Grady Sexton, here. Councelor Horn, present. Councelor Keech,

[10:36] uh, councelor Kee will be late. Councelor here. Councelor Curts here.

[10:41] Councelor Mclofflin here. Councelor McNamera here. Councelor Schlasher here.

[10:46] Councelor Schultz here. Councelor Seiku who will be late. And councelor Todd

[10:51] here. Very good. Uh thank you very much. Uh I'll entertain a motion to approve

[10:58] the uh meeting minutes uh of the March 10th city council meeting.

[11:04] Seconded. Any discussion? All right. I'll just make

[11:08] one correction, madame clerk, that uh it's St. Patty's Day with D's, not T's.

[11:15] No. All right. Well, as a as a proud as a proud stepson of Ireing of Ireland, I

[11:21] just want to make sure we had that right. All right. Any further

[11:24] discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying I oppose. No. The eyes

[11:29] have it. Um uh I would just like to mention that uh for those uh who have uh

[11:35] challenges hearing, there are hearing devices available in the room. Uh they

[11:40] are a transmitter and headphones that allow an individual to get a direct feed

[11:44] of the sound of tonight's meeting. Uh and they uh can be obtained in the back

[11:48] of the room at the Conquered TV booth. Uh if you need that facility, please uh

[11:54] go right ahead. I'd also like to take a moment during our agenda overview to

[11:58] recognize uh and ask them to stand the conquered uh general services propel

[12:04] program class. Please stand all of

[12:15] you. Propel is a leadership development uh program that general services has

[12:20] been running for is it two years chip? two years. Uh it's a great uh a great

[12:26] program. So we welcome all of you. It's good to have you at this meeting.

[12:31] Uh I uh now will turn to the uh consent agenda. Uh nothing has been withdrawn

[12:37] from the consent agenda. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda

[12:41] as presented. Councelor Brown. Yes. I am recusing myself from item number 22

[12:46] because my husband is a police officer. Thank you, councelor. And council

[12:49] councelor Curts did make the motion. No, counselor. I'm sorry. Council Grady

[12:53] Saxton and you second it. Second. All right. Thank you. Any any further

[12:57] discussion? All right. All those in favor of the

[13:00] motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Oppose. No. The eyes have

[13:07] it. That brings us uh to uh the public hearing uh portion of our meeting. Uh

[13:13] madam city clerk, item 32A. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of

[13:19] $84,000 to support efforts by Concords Plant to end homelessness and

[13:23] authorizing a transfer in from the community improvement reserve in the

[13:26] amount of $84,000. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Members of the council, uh,

[13:32] working with councelor Slasher, he asked us to put together a report and a

[13:37] funding resolution, and you have those before you tonight. Okay. Any questions

[13:40] for the city manager? hearing none. I'll open this the uh

[13:44] public hearing on this item. Would anyone like to

[13:49] testify? Seeing none, I'll declare the public meeting closed. Madame city

[13:53] clerk, item 32B. It's a resolution appropriating the sum

[13:58] of $11,500 in the parks and recreation

[14:01] miscellaneous grants and donations project for the free summer concert

[14:05] series and accepting the sum of $11,500 as a donation from the Walker

[14:11] lecture series for this. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Members of the council,

[14:15] since uh 2022, the Walker Lecture Series has continued to fund the the Thursday

[14:20] night and Sunday morning free community concerts. Last year, their donation was

[14:26] $9,500. With the new riverfront park in Penuk opening this spring, we approached

[14:31] the Walk Electric series to see if they would fund the expansion of our our

[14:34] summer concerts. Requested $2,000 for the new concerts at Pedakook and they've

[14:40] agreed and that funding is before you tonight for action. Thank you. Any

[14:43] questions for the city manager? Seeing none, I'll open the

[14:48] public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on item 32B?

[14:54] Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Madam City Clerk, item

[14:59] 32C, it's a resolution appropriating the sum of $10,000 in the annual highway

[15:04] improvement program for pavement repairs and accepting the sum of $10,000 from

[15:10] Main Street America Insurance for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

[15:14] Council, I'd just like to add that the pavement repairs would be for Elm

[15:18] Street. Thank you. Any questions for the city

[15:24] manager? Seeing none, uh I'll open this uh item uh for public hearing. Is there

[15:29] anyone who would like to testify on item 32 C?

[15:34] Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing on item 32 closed. Madame clerk,

[15:39] item 32D. It's a resolution modifying the all veterans tax credit for the city

[15:44] of conquered pursuant to the provisions of RSA 7227A.

[15:49] Thank you, Mr. Mr. City Manager. Your honor, members of the council, you'll

[15:52] notice that this report is also applicable to the next two uh agenda

[15:56] items. And very briefly, the uh presently the asset level for the

[16:01] elderly grouping uh for both single and married applicants is $150,000, not

[16:07] including the value of the applicant's primary residence. The current income

[16:10] thresholds are single $42,000 and married $60,000. The exemption mounts

[16:17] amounts are age 65 to 74 is $80,000, age 75 to 79 is

[16:25] $131,000 and ages 80 and older is $223 uh,000. The tax exemption policy

[16:32] committee recommended to increase the income levels from 42,000 to 44,100 for

[16:38] single applicants and from 60,000 to 63,000 for married applicants. And no

[16:44] other changes were recommended. Would you like me to go through all of them or

[16:47] do you want to? Yes. In fact, uh, if the council has no objection, I think we'll

[16:50] have public hearing on all three of these at the same time because they all

[16:53] deal with the same issue. Okay. Madam city clerk, next item is a resolution

[16:58] modifying the elderly exemption for the city of conquered pursuant to the

[17:02] provisions of RSA 7227A. And then there is a resolution

[17:07] modifying the op optional veterans tax credit for the city of conquered. Thank

[17:12] you. So, I'll just continue. The uh tax

[17:15] exemption policy committee recommended increasing the optional veterans credit

[17:19] and the all veterans credit u tax credit from $300 to $400. That would apply to

[17:26] both of them. And you have separate resolutions for each one of those items.

[17:29] Thank you. Any questions for the city manager on these three items? Council

[17:33] Credit. Thank you, your honor. Uh Mr. city manager and looking at the

[17:36] comparisons from town to town, specifically the one for the veteran tax

[17:40] credit, um I noticed that ours was substantially lower than other the other

[17:44] communities and while the recommendation is increase this tax credit to $400, can

[17:49] you give me a sense of why we stopped at 400 and didn't go higher? Looks like

[17:53] councelor Fennessy would like to answer. I'd be happy to answer that. So, uh we

[17:58] started th this process last year. I think we were at 200 last year.

[18:04] Uh we went up to 300 last year. This year we're recommending going up to 400

[18:09] with a goal that next year we might move up to 500. And that was based on the

[18:14] recommendation we talked last year about potentially going from 200 to 500. And

[18:18] the uh the recommendation we got from staff was to just step it up over time

[18:23] uh because we recognized that we were below uh surrounding communities. So, I

[18:28] think the committee has we'll see who's here next year, but uh the the thought

[18:33] process was doing it over time to get to that $500 number. Thank you. I

[18:38] appreciate your answer. Any other questions?

[18:41] I think it's worthwhile noting uh I think that you touched on this, but that

[18:45] a tax credit is actually a dollar amount that's subtracted from your taxes due

[18:51] as opposed from the value of your property, which is what the exemption

[18:54] is. All right. Thank you. Uh, I'll know if there are no other questions, I'll

[18:58] open those three items for public hearing. Is there anyone who would like

[19:01] to testify on items 32D, E, or

[19:07] F? Seeing none, I'll close public hearing. And that moves us to public

[19:12] hearing action. Uh, item 33. Madam City clerk, it is a resolution appropriating

[19:19] the sum of $84,000 to support efforts by Concord's

[19:23] plan to end homelessness and authorizing the transfer in from the community

[19:27] improvement reserve and the sum of $84,000 for this purpose. Thank you. The

[19:31] chair recognizes councelor Shasser. Thank you, mayor. So, I would like to

[19:35] move to table this motion, please. Is there a second? Second. Moved and

[19:39] seconded. Would you like to speak to your motion? I would. Thank you. And I

[19:43] really want to thank everybody in the council for support for supporting this

[19:47] work. Um last year the steering committee for homeless the

[19:52] the committee for conquer's plan to end homelessness

[19:56] uh convened city leaders and others and identified five priority aims uh aligned

[20:03] with the city council's priority on homelessness. The city council approved

[20:07] a priority that included uh plans to coordinate and require

[20:13] measurable progress in this effort by unifying communities activities around a

[20:19] shared goal of reducing homelessness. So we really need to unify all the

[20:24] activities convening key organizations and departments to streamline

[20:28] homelessness and we intend to map uh county regional state responses to

[20:32] homeless and aligning those with the conquer's plan.

[20:36] A key element also is maintaining a comprehensive real-time by name list of

[20:41] all those experiencing homelessness. This work is being

[20:44] coordinated by the steering committee. So we convened f uh city leaders,

[20:50] community leaders and others and identified five priority aims to work on

[20:53] this. With these aims, we intend to organize working groups to focus to

[21:00] achieve measurable progress on those aims.

[21:04] This requires uh both coordinated action by the steering committee and project

[21:10] management. And this appropriation that's was suggested in this resolution

[21:15] is to fund at least in part a a project manager. So a a project manager to help

[21:21] coordinate the working groups is a key piece of this. The other intention of

[21:26] the steering committee is to um survey solicit input from the

[21:32] community by getting a listening session so that we get additional input from the

[21:37] community on the interests and values of a broad section of the stakeholders in

[21:42] the community for ending homelessness. Uh so the project manager listening

[21:48] sessions and uh the other uh element of our budget is to convene quarterly

[21:56] learning session so that the people working on this work both in the

[22:00] steering committee, our nonprofits, the city, other folks working on these

[22:05] efforts can come together quarterly and share lessons learned in their efforts.

[22:11] And annually we would convene everyone into a homeless summit to both assess

[22:16] progress, measurable progress in this effort and celebrate

[22:20] successes. Um so the our budget over two years is about $220,000 which is for the

[22:28] project manager over two years these listening sessions and the quarterly

[22:34] learning sessions in the annual summit. the we have been fundraising for this

[22:40] effort and I really want to uh notice the mayor who's really helped us

[22:45] substantially by soliciting private donations to help support some of this

[22:49] work. Over the this past weekend uh we've received new news that there's uh

[22:56] possibility of an additional substantial funding from uh the New Hampshire

[23:01] Charitable Foundation. So with that new news over the weekend, I think at this

[23:05] time it would make sense to table this motion at this time, continue our

[23:09] fundraising efforts, and then in the future see what uh support from the city

[23:16] uh may be necessary. I think it's critical to understand that this effort

[23:21] is an all-in effort, public private partnership, each according to their

[23:26] role, each according to their means. So, we've talked to the chamber of commerce.

[23:30] We've talked to the nonprofits, the foundations, the faith communities and

[23:35] the city, everybody in collaborating on this effort. And so, I just want to

[23:39] appreciate the work of all those agencies and partners. And I think uh

[23:46] the fundraising efforts to date have been uh successful. We can hold off on

[23:50] this city appropriation at this time. and hopefully very soon we will succeed

[23:55] in our initial fundraising and be able to hire a project manager and really

[23:59] accelerate the work of the steering committee. Thank you, Council. I just

[24:02] also like to mention the strong support of the Granite United Way, which has

[24:07] which has offered to be fiscal agent for the program and assist with fundraising

[24:11] uh and recruit and uh and house the the the program manager. Thank you. For

[24:16] which we're deeply grateful. Any uh any other discussion?

[24:23] All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by

[24:25] saying I. Oppos? No. Eyes have it. The resolution passes or the motion passes.

[24:32] Uh, madame city clerk, item 34. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of

[24:38] $11,500 in the parks and recreation miscellaneous grants and donations

[24:42] project free summer concert series and accepting the sum of

[24:47] $11,500 as a donation from the Walker lecture series for this program.

[24:53] Approved. Second. Moved and seconded. Discussion.

[24:57] I would just like to say uh we deeply appreciate the ongoing support of the

[25:01] Walker Foundation. Uh, and I think it's great that we're going to be extending

[25:05] the free concert uh, series out to Pentacook, taking advantage of the new

[25:10] uh, uh, the new Canal Street Riverfront Park, which is a great venue for that.

[25:15] So, I'm looking forward to being out there for at least one of the

[25:20] concerts. All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please

[25:23] signify by saying I. I. Opposed? No. The eyes have it.

[25:28] Madam City Clerk, item number 35, it's a resolution appropriating the sum of

[25:34] $10,000 in the annual highway improvement program project for pavement

[25:38] repairs and accepting the sum of $10,000 from Main Street American Insurance for

[25:43] this purpose. Second. Moved and seconded. Any

[25:47] discussion? Councelor F. Thank you. Uh I'm going to be recusing myself on this

[25:51] as I represent a subsidiary of Main Street American Insurance. Thank you,

[25:55] councelor. Any other discussion? All right. All those in

[26:01] favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. Oppose. No. Eyes

[26:06] have it. Motion passes. Madam city clerk, item number 36. It is a

[26:10] resolution modifying the all veterans tax credit for the city of conquered

[26:14] pursuant to the provisions of RSA 7227A. Move approval. Second. Moved and

[26:20] seconded. Any discussion? Council Brown. Your honor, I will be recusing myself

[26:25] from this as I am a veteran. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Fennessy, thank

[26:31] you. I just want to say once again, thank you to the tax exemption policy

[26:36] committee as well as the staff support we got uh from John Rice. Uh we looked

[26:42] at these um there's a lot of spreadsheets uh a lot of uh trying to

[26:47] figure out how best to do this and strike a balance between uh making sure

[26:52] that we um look out for some of the elderly members of the community as well

[26:58] as our veterans and make sure that we are uh sort of keeping up with what's

[27:03] appropriate in the larger community while at the same time making sure that

[27:06] we don't um go too far in a direction that we unnecessarily ly burden other

[27:11] taxpayers. So, um I want to thank the committee again for working on this and

[27:16] I hope you will support each of these. Thank you. Thank you.

[27:20] Thank you. I'm recusing myself from um both of these all three of these

[27:27] resolutions as a result of um the 39 solar panels I have at my house. So,

[27:34] thank you. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion?

[27:39] All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by

[27:42] saying I. I opposed. No. Eyes have it. Motion is adopted. Madam City clerk,

[27:48] item number 37. It's a resolution modifying the elderly exemption for the

[27:54] city of conquer pursuant to the provisions of RSA 7227A.

[28:00] Motion approval. Moved and seconded. Okay. Any discussion? Council Brown. I

[28:06] just want to um express gratefulness because I heard from constituents who

[28:11] are who are applying because of this. Now they, you know, they can qualify and

[28:16] they had called me earlier upset, concerned. Um so this allows them to

[28:22] apply for it. Super. So I'm thrilled. Thank you.

[28:26] All right. Any other discussion? All those in favor of the motion as

[28:29] presented, please signify by saying I oppos. No. Eyes have it. Motion is

[28:34] adopted. Madam City Clerk, item number 38. It is a resolution modifying the

[28:39] optional veterans tax credit for the city of conquered pursuant to the

[28:43] provisions of RSA 7227A. Move approval. Moved and seconded. Okay.

[28:49] Any discussion? Councilor Brown. Yes. I'm still a veteran so I will recuse

[28:53] myself from this as well. All right. Thank

[28:55] you. I love it. Any any other discussion or recus? We

[29:02] already have one from council foot right. Okay. All those in the

[29:07] motion as presented please signify by saying I I opposed. No. Eyes have it.

[29:12] Motion passes. Uh this brings us to reports. Mr. City Manager's member of

[29:17] the council. You have a report in front of you regarding the bridge deck

[29:21] feasibility study. You have the study. The consultants are not going to be able

[29:24] to be here until next month. So we're just going to slide this till next

[29:28] month. you'll get a full presentation because in case you have questions, it'd

[29:31] be best going to the consultants who actually worked on the project. So, I'll

[29:36] just add that to next month's agenda. All right, everyone understands that?

[29:39] We'll just have the presentation and report next month. All right, thank you.

[29:43] Uh, this brings us to consideration of suspense items. Do I have a motion to

[29:47] suspend the rules to take up this item? So, moved. Moved. Second. Moved and

[29:53] seconded. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by

[29:57] saying I. I opposed. No. No. Eyes have it. Motion passes. Um I'll entertain uh

[30:05] me city clerk. Um yes. Suspense one is a report from the city solicitor's office

[30:10] regarding referral of board of ethics complaint to city council. I'll

[30:14] entertain a motion to refer this back to the board of ethics with instructions to

[30:18] meet as soon as a quorum can be convened to address the complaint. So moved.

[30:25] Second. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council Brown. Yes. Um I'm

[30:30] grateful that this is going back to um the ethics uh committee because I do

[30:35] feel that um the members of the um golf advisory

[30:41] committee do have a number of benefits um that have been

[30:46] growing since the time that the committee was first expanded to have six

[30:51] uh general public representatives. So I'm glad that they will be looking at

[30:55] that. I do feel that we are partially to blame because we appoint and nominate

[31:00] people to these committees. Uh so I would like to see and I'm not sure if

[31:04] this is something that would be decided by the ethics board that there might be

[31:09] more clearer language that the general public representative is a non-golfer

[31:14] because there are two roles that are identified as both a golfer and a

[31:19] seasoned member. So I would just like to say that

[31:23] um you know I hope we have a more clear language um going forward. All right.

[31:29] Thank you councel council councel was first I was just going to say on the the

[31:34] point that councelor Brown was making I don't think that's really in the purview

[31:38] of the ethics committee. I think if the council wants to change the um positions

[31:45] on any advisory committee that's in our purview and we can certainly do that at

[31:49] any point. Council, did you Your honor, this is unchartered ter

[31:55] territory and the ethics complaint is against me. Am I allowed to speak on

[31:58] this? Uh I'm going to rule that you are. Thank

[32:03] you. I have concerns in general about the complaint. The middle name of the

[32:09] golf advisory board is advisory. They have absolutely no authority to set any

[32:15] rates or anything in regards to the golf course. They are there to oversee

[32:20] recommendations by city staff and make recommendations to the council.

[32:24] Councilor Brown said that we're partially to blame. The council is

[32:28] wholly to blame for who is appointed to that board. I would have hoped that

[32:34] tonight, if anything, you would have let our good volunteers who raised their

[32:38] hand and said, "I would like to serve the city." Let them go. Release them as

[32:44] a city council. If you have concerns because I also golf, which has been

[32:48] known for over 25 years, and I am voted to this position, and it is the largest

[32:54] municipal operation in War 3. If you have concerns about that, let that go

[32:58] get back to to uh ethics for them to review. But that's not what the

[33:02] complaint says. The complaint says that we made a recommendation in regards to

[33:08] the golf course clubhouse that came before that board that we supported a

[33:13] specific recommendation. That board, the golf advisory board, is

[33:18] targeted targeted specifically because should there have been any concern about

[33:24] what the ordinance said and who should serve and who shouldn't and who might

[33:27] have some sort of preferential treatment, we would not have a realtor

[33:32] sitting on the zoning board. We would not have planners, engineers, architects

[33:37] serving on other boards related to architectural design review, the

[33:41] planning board. How about people that drink water? How about people that have

[33:46] garbage service? How about people with leaf pickup? How about people with

[33:50] library cards? What you're saying is that if a resident participates wholly

[33:54] in our community, they don't deserve to participate in our our fundamental right

[34:02] of a democracy government that is set up of the people, by the people, for the

[34:08] people. If you want to split hairs over this, this is a discourse and a

[34:13] disagreement about the golf course clubhouse and an effort to undermine

[34:19] that going forward. The only reason the golf advisory board was asked to weigh

[34:24] in on this was because they oversee the golf obligation fund and the golf

[34:32] obligation bonds that come from the operations of the golf course. There was

[34:38] a whole other committee set up and designed to talk about the clubhouse, to

[34:44] do the public review, to take all of the public input and put together their

[34:48] recommendations, which then went to the golf advisory board and FPAC. Why is

[34:53] FPAC not also included in this complaint? It's because we're targeted.

[34:59] The way civil discourse works is that it's a civil conversation where we walk

[35:05] away sometimes knowing that we disagree, but at the same time we try to come to

[35:11] consensus. There was no effort here to try and build consensus on anything.

[35:17] This is about ripping out this project before it ever even comes to this

[35:22] council. And that to me is unfair to the good, kind volunteers that serve on

[35:28] every committee within our city. Thank you, your honor. Thank you, councelor.

[35:33] Are we ready for a vote? Your honor, council Brown. Thank you. I would just

[35:37] like to point out when the golf advisory committee was expanded in 20 in 2008,

[35:44] there was a mission statement that they changed and the language that they had

[35:49] removed had to do with fiscal responsibility. I will read the language

[35:53] that was removed by the golf advisory committee. The course must be operated

[35:58] in a business-like manner so that all yearly operating expenses, including

[36:03] present and future capital improvements, are met without the need to supplement

[36:08] revenues with tax dollars. Alternative income sources should be continually

[36:13] explored to supplement current revenue sources. That language was removed

[36:17] removed. I would like to see that language brought back. Would you speak

[36:20] to the motion? Yes, I the motion is this going back to the ethics board. As

[36:26] councelor Fennessesy pointed out, it is within our purview to address something

[36:30] like this, not the ethics board. So, I'm saying that I would like to see fiscal

[36:35] responsibility language back into the mission. Thank you. Thank you,

[36:38] counselor. Any [Applause]

[36:43] further order, please? Please. No expressions of

[36:48] approval or disapproval. All right. Uh, are we ready for I'm sorry,

[36:53] Councelor Horn. Um, as councelor Fennesses stated, it's something the

[36:59] just the appointment process is something that we can discuss. When

[37:02] would we be able to discuss that? I know it's not during this motion. Is it

[37:05] something we can take up after that or uh it's not an item that's on the

[37:10] agenda, counselor? Let's discuss that separately and see

[37:13] what we can do about Okay. All those in favor of the motion as

[37:18] presented, please signify by saying I opposed. No. No. Eyes have it. All

[37:27] right. This brings us to

[37:32] comments. Councelor, Councelor Todd, any comments

[37:36] to that? You you're reading my mind that I have a a comment? I have. Um, well, I

[37:42] I just I'm really echoing uh part of uh what you had said earlier about uh the

[37:48] concert series. I just want to say that I'm very excited and looking forward to

[37:52] what will happen in the new Canal Street Riverfront Park. Very pleased that uh

[37:55] Mr. Gil has arranged for additional funding so that we can have some extra

[37:59] activities there. And I'm also looking forward to uh the official grand opening

[38:04] of the park which I think we are anticipating sometime in June or July of

[38:08] this year. So, we'll get some more information on that coming forward

[38:11] shortly and I'll be sure to let all folks know uh what the activities are

[38:15] and the other things that are planned for uh the park. So, uh again, thanks my

[38:20] thanks to uh David Gil and everyone for uh really focusing on the community

[38:25] Penokeook and these these kinds of activities. Thank you. Thank you,

[38:28] Council Point. Um we are still hiring for lifeguards and water safety

[38:34] instructors. You can apply online at conquered new hampshire.gov.

[38:38] you do need to be 15. Um, if you work full-time all summer, you can make

[38:43] $5,500. And if we want to keep our pools and splash pad open, if people can

[38:49] please apply, you don't have to be a teenager. Adults are definitely welcome

[38:53] as well to get out there and do it. Thank you, C. Thank you, your honor. Uh,

[38:57] the 250300

[38:59] semiquincentennial tsentennial committee is putting together a event cheret for

[39:06] May 8th. It'll be here in council chambers. It's open to anyone that is

[39:10] interested in getting involved in the 250, 350, or 300 celebration. My gosh, I

[39:15] don't even know the numbers myself. Um, and really for our nonprofit

[39:19] organizations that um already conduct events over the course of the year. I

[39:24] haven't sent the flyer out yet, but it's for you to mark the um mark this in your

[39:28] calendar. It's from 4 to 5:30 p.m. again here in council chambers on May 8th. The

[39:35] 250th anniversary is about the 250th anniversary of the signing of the

[39:41] Declaration of Independence. The 300th anniversary is the time at which King

[39:46] George released conquered and seven other

[39:50] communities from the state of Massachusetts and we became our very own

[39:54] township. They're here.

[40:00] Thank you, your honor. Um, Conquered Parks and Wreck has been working the

[40:05] last six days on a fundraiser for to complete our order for the Monkey Round

[40:11] Playground. Prices have gone up and we are raising about $60,000.

[40:18] 275 has been raised in the last five days and

[40:25] um I just don't want to see anything taken away from all children, anything

[40:30] accessible for all children in this community. One of the most important

[40:33] things to me besides being accessible was the music center station. um many

[40:40] children who might be autistic, who might have needs where that would really

[40:45] um enthral them and give them uh a learning fun edge. I think that I said

[40:51] we can't let this go. So, we're working on this. We have a total of 30 days. If

[40:55] anyone's interested in donating, you can go to the parks and wreck website. You

[41:00] can donate online or you can contact David at Parks and Wreck and send him a

[41:06] check. There are also three levels. If you want to be a sponsor and be

[41:10] recognized, you can do that and you can find the information on the website.

[41:15] Thank you, Council Council Brown. Yes. On April 21st, the Energy and

[41:19] Environment Committee advisory committee is sponsoring an Earth Day uh community

[41:26] conversation celebration up at the Heights Community Center from 6:00 to 8.

[41:31] Our keynote speaker is Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander. And we will hear from

[41:36] uh different committees on what the city is doing um that is sustainable. And

[41:40] we'll also be also be issuing an Earth Day challenge to encourage people to you

[41:46] know choose from a wide array of of things to do that are sustainable in our

[41:53] community. From planting a tree to dropping off clothing into a donation uh

[41:57] box to cleaning up trash, uh planting a garden. There's a lot of um

[42:03] opportunities. So, I hope folks come there. And May 2nd is in town conquered

[42:07] first Friday. We donated money to that from the arts grant. Um, I will be

[42:13] co-hosting a tree tour with former um city planner, landscape architect Bob

[42:19] Pollock. And at 4:30 on the state house lawn and then at 5:30, the women's club

[42:26] at 44 Pleasant Street is having their annual meeting. And I would highly

[42:30] encourage folks to go. It is a beautiful building um historical and such a

[42:35] fantastic purpose. So, lots of things to do on Friday. Thank you, Council Kurts.

[42:41] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to remind everyone that there are two

[42:44] events left in the um conquered public library um conquered reads program. The

[42:51] book this year was Where You'll Find Me, and I found it very compelling

[42:55] non-fiction account of a tragedy in the White Mountains, but um really, really

[43:00] interesting. All events are free, but they do require pre-registration. I

[43:04] can't I haven't checked, so I don't know if there's space, but um if you did read

[43:07] it or you want to learn more about it, check out the website, which you can

[43:11] find through the uh city website, conquered new hampshire.gov. I want to

[43:15] wish everyone celebrates this coming Sunday a happy spring, everyone.

[43:20] Thank you, your honor. Um, one of my very favorite events is back downtown.

[43:26] It's the Cars and Coffee on Capitol Street by our good friends at Rebel

[43:30] Stoke. And if you missed the April event, um the next one is May 11th. It's

[43:35] the second Sunday of the month from 8 to 11. And you if you haven't seen it, you

[43:41] have to get down there and check it out. It's it's very cool to see all it's a

[43:45] great draw from all over the region, all over New England. People are coming to

[43:50] show off their incredible cars and it's a lot of fun for everybody.

[43:56] Councelor Mcloffliner councelor Schller, excuse

[44:00] me. So, I just want to shout out to two Ward 7 residents, Andy Duncan and Laurel

[44:05] Horn. They've uh volunteered to help spearhead a beautifying event of the

[44:11] South End for Earth Day. So, on uh April 22nd from 4 to 5:30 p.m., volunteers

[44:18] will be picking up litter in Rollins Park, Bow Street, and South Street near

[44:22] the schools. So, anybody who's interested is invited to meet at the

[44:26] covered picnic table near the Monarch Way station pollinator garden in Rollins

[44:31] Park uh uphill from the tennis courts. There will be blue bags available or you

[44:35] can bring your own bucket, bring gloves, rain or shine, come and help uh beautify

[44:41] the south end. So, April 22nd, uh Tuesday, 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. Everybody's

[44:46] welcome. Thank you. Council second. I have a lot so bear with me. I'm just

[44:52] kidding. Um so I want to take this opportunity and to recognize Jim Shasher

[44:56] for his tireless work on the community because I think it take passion,

[45:02] dedication and really a leadership to do what he's doing. So great work. I'm very

[45:07] pleased for everything that you have been putting in this very important

[45:11] work. Thank you. Kudos. You're here. Um I want to take this opportunity also

[45:17] to thank uh park and wreck for putting the gate at the kitchen park and to the

[45:24] leadership team at administrators as well for really such an important work

[45:30] that didn't take me much to do just sharing what's happening showing them

[45:35] what is there and the safety they prioritize our children's safety our

[45:39] community safety so thank you um I also want to say thank you to everyone who

[45:46] attended our dinner. It was such an honor to host all of you guys and it was

[45:51] a beautiful dinner. So, thank you all. Um, we attended the firefighter

[45:59] celebration to honor our firefighters. It was such a beautiful

[46:04] event and it was such an honor to be there to celebrate all of them. So

[46:08] congratulations to all our honories and thank you for everything you do every

[46:14] day in our community to keep our community safe. Last but not least,

[46:19] happy Easter and happy Passover to everybody who celebrated. Thank you.

[46:25] Councelor Schultz. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um it's always hard to follow uh my

[46:31] fellow Heights counselor because he says so many wonderful things. Um, I also

[46:36] want to give a shout out to my friends who care about Keech Park. You are not

[46:40] forgotten. You were on our radar. Um, we I can speak for Ali and I, we appreciate

[46:48] you and I'm sure everybody does really. Um, but what I also wanted to say on

[46:52] that official note, April, for you dog family folks, it is time to renew your

[46:59] dog license. um kind of weird since they're family

[47:03] members, but um it's really important to have if you have your rabies uh

[47:08] certificate when you do apply for the renewal. It's nice if you can include

[47:14] that. Having said that, they're really wonderful and how they track those

[47:17] things down. I was in the office today and there were three dog families there

[47:22] uh renewing our dogs licenses. Um, and we appreciate all that the clerk and her

[47:29] office does in that regard. Thank you, Foot. Thank you, your honor. We got a

[47:35] few things here. Uh, first order, I I want to echo some of the comments about

[47:40] uh what such a special week this is between Easter and Passover. So,

[47:44] everyone um happy uh Easter and Passover greetings. Um, also, uh, just sidebar,

[47:54] uh, attended the Conquered High, uh, hockey, boys hockey championship game a

[48:00] few weeks ago. Um, you know, the should very be very proud. Dunk Walls led uh,

[48:06] our our city to another state championship and it was it was um, it

[48:11] was quite a game. It went to four overtimes. I think it was the longest

[48:15] um game in HIAA history. um more impressive. Um councelor Ke Councel

[48:22] Keech was there and he was wearing his 1979 varsity jacket. So

[48:28] he still looked good. It looked good. The arms the biceps were a bit tight,

[48:31] but other than that, so congratulations to him. Um also, um East Conquer lost

[48:39] one of its good guys. Met him a couple of years ago. Doug Finny uh did so many

[48:44] good things for East Conquer and the city. Uh he's a historian. Uh recently

[48:49] he's part of the Ebeneer Eeneer Eastman clock restoration

[48:54] and that's now operational. Um just one of those people when you when you meet

[48:59] him for the first time, you know he's the real deal and he passed away last

[49:03] month uh last month. Um and he's he's going to be missed and he is missed and

[49:07] he's conquered. So thank you uh Doug and your family. Um we really appreciate

[49:12] everything you've done for the city.

[49:17] Um lastly, um trash cleanup seems to be a theme that we're going through here.

[49:23] So, one of the things that um the city manager graciously did last week is um

[49:29] um trying to organize a cleanup uh from exit 15 to 13, essentially from

[49:35] Constitution down to uh common man. So, we're going to have two locations where

[49:40] people can park and please email me or or text me and we're trying to clean up

[49:45] that corridor basically along the railroad tracks that you can see from

[49:49] the interstate. Um, just it's an hour and a half

[49:53] Saturday uh the 19th at 8:30. Give me a please text me. We need

[50:00] bodies to make this happen. I think um we're a little lower than we want to be

[50:04] right now, but we need um bodies. If you u want to spend some time with councelor

[50:09] Horn or councelor Brown or councelor Schwaser or me, uh you're welcome to uh

[50:15] join us. Uh they've committed and I'm not sure if any others are, but um it's

[50:20] one of those things that, you know, it's people see that when they drive through

[50:24] this comm this community from the interstate and anything we can do to

[50:28] beautify um I think it's a worthwhile effort. That's why we're doing it. So,

[50:33] please send me a text again. I'll say it again. We need bodies. Uh, you text me.

[50:38] It's my information's on the um city website. The date. April 19th, 8:30 to

[50:45] 10:00 a.m. And whoever shows up, I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

[50:51] And but again, Jfootnh.gov.

[50:56] No. Yes. and my phone number

[51:01] 6032253256 text me well that's going to open up

[51:06] but it's Easter so hopefully everybody's in a good mood so thank you look forward

[51:12] to some folks helping out um and that's what I am thank you you counselor uh I

[51:19] would just like to to add to councelor foot's comments about Doug Finny uh

[51:24] Doug's wife Angie worked with me for uh at uh financial and its predecessor

[51:30] companies for a number of years before she retired and I retired. Uh Doug's

[51:34] father uh was a noted photographer uh in the state who did a lot of work with uh

[51:40] uh Chub Life America and uh was an artist uh really and Doug was a warm,

[51:47] generous, community focused person uh the kind of person that we really uh

[51:53] need uh more of these days. Uh they were neighbors of mine uh in Ward 4 before

[51:59] they decided to move out to W 10. Uh but other than that, they were great. They

[52:04] are great people. Uh but I I deeply miss them when they when they move because

[52:09] they were, as I said, right around the corner. I saw them all the time. Um but

[52:13] uh Doug will be missed. Uh I want to add to uh uh the mayor prom's comments about

[52:19] the firefighters recognition. Uh it was a great ceremony, a great night. Um uh

[52:25] in particular I you know I note the members of the concrete firefighting

[52:29] team who were recognized for their role in rescuing rescuing the child over on

[52:34] the western side of the state who fell uh into a creasse or a crack in a rock.

[52:39] Uh it was an incredibly difficult uh situation. The temperatures were

[52:42] dropping. Uh there was a great effort to maintain the child's body temperature

[52:47] while they figured out a solution to what was a very very difficult problem.

[52:51] Uh and they stepped forward and they excelled at it. Um, and uh, uh, you

[52:55] know, I think you all should be proud of that work as well as the day-to-day work

[52:58] that they do uh, in saving lives and protecting us uh, and getting us to the

[53:03] hospital when we need to, which is most of what they do these days. Uh, and I do

[53:07] want to thank uh, the mayor prom uh, for the invitation uh, to his mosque fortar

[53:13] uh, at the end of Ramadan. Uh, I think that was the third year. I've been

[53:18] there, huh? Fourth year. Fourth year. Yeah. Thank you. Fourth year. Uh and

[53:23] it's always uh it's always very warming. Uh uh it's a it's a wonderful uh uh

[53:29] group of folks who uh attend the mosque. Uh and it's always good to see friends

[53:33] there. Um and also uh happy Easter and happy Passover. Alas, we had to be

[53:39] afflicted with uh the Ten Commandments again, but other than the overacting in

[53:43] that opus, uh it's a great [Laughter]

[53:48] holiday. But um I hope everyone enjoys the holidays and celebrating their

[53:54] faith. Uh I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Moved and

[54:00] seconded. All ferify by saying I post. No. Eyes have it. We are ajourned.

City Council Meeting - 4/14/25

Transcript